Home > Authors > Alan Gerard Wagner > Practice and emptiness in the "Discourse Record of Ruru Jushi", Yan Bing (d. 1212), a Chan Buddhist layman of the Southern Song
Practice and emptiness in the "Discourse Record of Ruru Jushi", Yan Bing (d. 1212), a Chan Buddhist layman of the Southern Song
This dissertation is a study of the works of one Chinese Buddhist layman, Yan Bing, also known as Layman Ruru (Ruru jushi, d. 1212). His writings are extant in two editions, a handwritten manuscript of more than 400 pages, and a woodblock print of 121 pages. Herein we find a great wealth of primary material on Buddhist thought, culture, and practice in the Southern Song (1127-1279): essays on doctrine, morality, and meditation, written prayers and supplications, detailed ritual protocols, records of his formal Chan teachings, a complex diagram of the Buddhist cosmos, and essays and verses on the unity of the "Three Teachings" (Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism). This study has two aims; the first is to introduce Yan Bing to the English-speaking scholarly community, which it accomplishes by presenting a substantial volume of transcriptions and translations from his corpus. The second...